If you've been scrolling local Facebook groups or catching stray headlines about "ferries returning to the Merrimack," you've probably absorbed the shorthand version: Amesbury is getting a boat stop, the boats are solar-powered, and sometime soon you'll be able to hop a free ride to Newburyport instead of driving. All of that is true in the sense that it's been announced, funded in part, and designed. None of it is true in the sense that it's built, fully paid for, or running on a fixed date.
That gap matters if you're weighing a purchase near Amesbury's waterfront on the assumption that a ferry stop is about to reshape the neighborhood. The project is farther along than a rumor. It's also farther from finished than the coverage from late 2025 made it sound.
What Actually Got Funded, and What Didn't
The ferry itself has real money behind it. Merrimack Valley Transit, known as MeVa, secured a $4.2 million federal grant in 2023 to build electric ferries connecting Haverhill, Amesbury, and Newburyport. MeVa stretched that grant far enough to commission three boats instead of two, along with extra batteries and a backup propulsion system. The boats are 33-foot aluminum catamarans built by Lyman-Morse of Thomaston, Maine, designed with Newburyport-based naval architect William Lincoln of Response Marine, and powered by electric propulsion systems from Evoy Vita. One demonstration vessel could be on the water as soon as summer 2026, with full three-boat service targeted for 2027.
The dock is a separate problem. Amesbury's stop is planned for Washington Landing, the city's only public boat ramp, on Merrimac Street next to the Marina at Amesbury Point. In January 2024, the city received $840,000 from the state's Supportive Coastal Infrastructure and Local Maritime Economic Development Planning grants program, part of a $2 million pool shared with five other coastal communities including Fall River and Provincetown. That money was meant to cover a new boat ramp, a roughly 900-square-foot boardwalk, a gangway and 100-foot finger dock, parking improvements, and shoreline restoration.
By April 2026, as the project neared the end of its site design phase, city officials told the Eagle-Tribune that the real cost is closer to $2.4 million. Amesbury Police Chief and Harbormaster Craig Bailey, who has spent years advocating for public river access, confirmed the city now needs additional funding it doesn't yet have secured. Two nearby marina owners, John Jay McPartland of the Marina at Hatter's Point and Dan Healey of the Marina at Amesbury Point, have already pledged money toward design and future maintenance, and a third, Marc Frontiero of Goodwin Creek Marina, sent a letter of support. That's real local buy-in. It isn't the same as a fully funded construction budget.
Twenty Minutes to Newburyport, Not Twenty Minutes to Boston
Even once the dock exists, the precise limit of what the ferry solves matters. At a cruising speed of 10 to 12 knots, the trip between Amesbury and Newburyport is expected to take around 20 minutes. That's a pleasant ride past four commercial marinas and the historic Lowell's Boat Shop. It is not a commute shortcut.
Amesbury has never had its own MBTA commuter rail stop. Getting to Boston still means reaching the Newburyport station, either by driving and parking, where a weekday daily rate runs $4 with a $70 monthly permit as of mid-2026, according to MBTA parking information, or by riding MeVa's existing Route 19 bus, which already connects Amesbury's Costello Station to the Newburyport train platform. From there, published MBTA schedules put the ride to North Station at roughly 60 to 75 minutes depending on the train.
The ferry doesn't touch that math. MeVa Administrator Noah Berger has said the long-term vision is to eventually link buses, vans, and even future train service to the ferry network, but nothing in the current plan shortens the rail commute for someone living near Washington Landing versus someone living anywhere else in Amesbury. If you're comparing towns based on ease of getting to Boston, this project doesn't move Amesbury up that list. It adds a scenic, likely free, recreational and short-hop option between two downtowns.
The Stretch of Amesbury This Actually Touches
Geography deserves the same precision. "Amesbury is getting a ferry" understates how localized the change is. The stop is Washington Landing, a single public boat ramp on Merrimac Street, roughly a mile from the center of downtown Amesbury. MeVa has discussed extending its bus service to shuttle ferry passengers that last mile, but that's a future coordination detail, not a current service.
This means the property most directly touched by the project is the immediate Merrimac Street and marina corridor, not the Millyard, not the downtown core along the Powow River, and not neighborhoods on the far side of town. If you're evaluating a home specifically because of ferry access, the relevant radius is small: walking distance to Washington Landing or the cluster of marinas along that stretch of the Merrimack. A property a mile inland gets none of the direct benefit, even if it's still within Amesbury city limits.
What This Means If You're Comparing Amesbury to the River Towns Around It
Buyers looking at Amesbury alongside Newburyport, Salisbury, or Haverhill often start from the same question: which of these towns is about to get a meaningful upgrade that hasn't been priced in yet? The honest answer right now is that Amesbury's waterfront has a credible, well-sourced case for future amenity value, and a much weaker case for anything that changes commute economics.
That distinction should shape how much weight you put on the ferry when comparing neighborhoods. A buyer prioritizing weekend river access, proximity to the marina cluster, or the kind of walkable, water-adjacent lifestyle that draws move-up buyers to Newburyport has a genuine reason to watch this corridor. A buyer whose primary driver is a faster or easier trip into Boston should treat the ferry as irrelevant to that decision and focus instead on the existing bus and rail connection through Newburyport station, funding gap or not.
Before you let a headline about "ferries returning to the Merrimack" influence an offer, run through a short list:
- Has the additional funding for the Washington Landing dock actually been secured, or is the project still in the design phase reported in April 2026?
- Is there a confirmed construction start date, or only a target year?
- Does the property in question fall within realistic walking distance of Washington Landing, or is it elsewhere in Amesbury?
- Are you valuing this as a recreational amenity, a commute improvement, or both? Only one of those is currently supported by the project as designed.
A Short FAQ
Will the ferry replace the MeVa bus connection to the Newburyport train station? No. MeVa's Route 19 bus will keep running as the connection between Amesbury and the Newburyport MBTA station. The ferry is a separate, shorter route between Amesbury and Newburyport aimed more at recreational and local trips than at replacing an existing commuter link.
When will the Amesbury ferry stop actually open? There's no confirmed date. MeVa has targeted a demonstration boat as early as summer 2026 and full three-boat service in 2027, but those are targets tied to a dock project that, as of April 2026, still needed additional funding beyond its original $840,000 grant.
Will riding the ferry cost anything? MeVa's buses are already fare-free, and officials have said they'd like to launch the ferry free as well, but they've also acknowledged that staying free long-term depends on additional funding they haven't yet locked in.
If you're weighing a purchase near Amesbury's waterfront, or trying to figure out how much of a premium the Merrimac Street corridor deserves relative to the rest of town, that's exactly the kind of question worth running past someone who tracks these projects as they develop rather than as they're announced. The Barnes Team can walk you through what's actually funded, what's still speculative, and what that means for the specific street you're considering. Get your instant home valuation to see where your comparison starts.
